Brian Rudman: Rich aroma of dodgy dealing on waterfront

Ever feel rorted? A year ago I supported the repatriation back into public ownership of the 20 per cent of privately owned Ports of Auckland shares for one main reason: so that the redevelopment of the surplus port company land at Auckland's front door could be governed by the public interest rather than the size of the dividend cheques of the shareholders.

But since the takeover, nothing seems to have changed. The port company continues to act as a law unto itself as far as the surplus land is concerned, and its public owners, the Auckland Regional Council, seem happy to let it.

Saturday's revelations by my colleague Bernard Orsman suggest that the port company has now thrust Auckland City Council up against a wall and warned it that if the public wants more open space in the planned redevelopment of the 8ha Tank Farm headland, then Auckland City ratepayers had better front up with $300 million. That's on top of the $350 million those same ratepayers are already committed to paying to cover roads, parks and other infrastructure in the planned redevelopment.

This from a company that is busy filling in 9.4ha of prime recreational Waitemata Harbour adjacent to Judges Bay to enlarge its existing container terminal because the Tank Farm area is not suitable for its needs.

Seems to me that, in a well- regulated family, if one member commandeers a large piece of valuable real estate then it's only right and proper that this acquisition be balanced by the exchange of a similar-sized piece of property nearby.

The surplus-to-needs Tank Farm peninsula seems an ideal swap for the slice of harbour currently being filled in. But instead, the cuzzies at the ARC, through their hirelings at Ports of Auckland, seem determined to squeeze their Auckland City rellies until the pips squeak. Auckland local politics gets more Balkanistic by the day.

In March, 76 per cent of submitters to Auckland City's plan change proposals for the area demanded more open space, and much less in the way of apartments and business development. Saturday's leaked plans show some notice has been taken of this reaction, but at a huge price.

Not only will there still be hundreds of apartments, in blocks up to six storeys high, but Ports will only budge if Auckland City becomes a 50:50 development partner, fronting up with $300 million.

What really grates is that by rights, Auckland City should have got this land for free back in the late 1980s when the Auckland Harbour Board was abolished by Government decree and any of the board's land not required for port-related business went to the local territorial council.

Somehow, Ports of Auckland convinced the Government that the Tank Farm and Westhaven Marina, to name two questionable properties, were needed for port business.

Subsequently, Auckland City, with a little help from central Government, was forced to fork out $54 million to prevent the port company from hocking off this so-called vital port land into foreign ownership.

Now the port company is at it again, demanding $300 million from Auckland City ratepayers as its price for not turning this so-called "port-related" land into a rich ghetto.

As an Aucklander who wants this wonderful space protected for all time, I appreciate Auckland City's attempt to make the best of an appalling situation. But the city should never have been forced into the situation where it might have to sell off its lucrative $300 million stake in Auckland International Airport to prevent the ARC-owned port company from destroying for all time the world-class waterfront pleasure park that most Aucklanders want.

Last September, the port company revealed its initial development concept for the Tank Farm.

It would rename it Kahurangi, a Maori word for "blue or precious jewel" which "reflects the promise" of "the paradigm shift" planned for the site. It was "like a jewel" which, under the port company's plan, "would be honed into a unique interface of land and sea".

At the time, I said the only thing named Kahurangi I knew of us was a smelly blue cheese. How appropriate the name turns out to be. Smelly and rotten seems to sum up what's happening down there. The sooner we get an independent waterfront redevelopment commission to take over, the better.